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American Antiquarian Society

Notable Acquisitions

March 2013

"NOT AT AAS" NO LONGER: A SAMMELBAND OF REVOLUTIONARY-ERA PAMPHLETS

1. Lewis, Eli. St. Clair's Defeat. A Poem. Harrisburgh [Pa.]: Printed [by John W. Allen and John

Wyeth], M,DCC,XCII. [1792] [2], 14 p. (Evans 24474, 1 copy only)

2. Brackenridge, Hugh Montgomery. Six Political Discourses Founded on the Scripture. Lancaster

[Pa.]: Printed by Francis Bailey., [1778] 88 p. (Evans 15748, 3 copies)

3. Nisbet, Rev. Charles. An Address to the Students of Dickinson College. Carlisle [Pa.]: Printed by

Kline & Reynolds., [1786] 16 p. [missing last two pages] (Evans 19865, 2 copies)

4. Beveridge, Thomas. The Servants of the Lord, Sustained by His Mercy, in the Work of the Gospel.

Philadelphia: Printed by W. Young, bookseller and stationer, the corner of Second and Chesnut-

Street., M,DCC,LXXXIX. [1789] 35, [1] p. (S&M 45438, 4 copies)

Two additional titles already at AAS:

5. Layman. Spiritual Food: or, Truth Displayed, in a Letter Addressed to Young Persons, wherein

Many of the Principles of the Christian Religion are Briefly Explained. Philadelphia: Printed by

Zachariah Poulson, Junior, MDCCXCII. [1792] 72 p. (Evans 24807, 3 copies)

6. Ward, Thomas. A Demonstration of the Uninterrupted Succession and Holy Consecration of the

First English Bishops. [Philadelphia : s.n.], Printed in the year M,DCC,LXVI. [1766] 47, [1] p.

[missing last eight pages] (Evans 10518, 2 copies)

Acquiring this one sturdy half-leather volume enabled the Society to fill almost

a half dozen gaps in our holdings of early American imprints. This sammelband

contains six early American pamphlets printed in Pennsylvania between 1766

and 1792 and later bound together (see the list of titles below). Remarkably, five

of the six were listed as "Not at AAS" in our online catalog. Given that this year

marks the start of the American Antiquarian Society’s third century of collecting

pre-1801 U.S. imprints, it is not often we come across such titles that escaped

our predecessors’ grasp. And when we do, you can just imagine how much they

cost! Finding this many "Not at AAS" Evans-era (i.e., pre-1801) early American

imprints all trussed up and waiting for us is impressive in itself, but the value of

these imprints goes far beyond just the satisfaction of checking items off a

shopping list.

- Each title in the sammelband is extremely rare. Less than a handful of

institutional copies are recorded for any of them and for the first title only one other copy is

recorded.

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- Among them are the first books or pamphlets known to be printed in Harrisburg, PA as well as

the first for Carlisle, PA. (Another imprint is from Lancaster and the last three were published in

Philadelphia.)

- There are ownership inscriptions in several places for "James Ross, Harrisburg, Penna.," as well

as other annotations.

- Half of the pamphlets focus on secular subjects – namely battles, politics, and education – as

opposed to the religious discourses so prevalent in early American imprints.

The first title is an epic battle poem later adapted into ballad form. St. Clair's Defeat commemorated a

major confrontation between the armed forces of the United States under St. Clair and the Western

Confederacy of Native Americans in the Northwest Territory. It was fought on November 4, 1791 and is

also known as the Battle of the Wabash, the Battle of Wabash River, or the Battle of a Thousand Slain. In

proportional terms of losses to strength, it was the worst defeat that United States forces have ever

suffered in battle—of the 1,000 officers and men that St. Clair led into battle, only 48 escaped unharmed.

As a result, President George Washington forced St. Clair to resign his post and the president’s refusal to

provide Congress access to information resulted in the first assertion of the doctrine of executive privilege

and Congress’s first investigation of the executive branch.

Perhaps the most rare is the second title: H.H. Brackenridge's Six Political Discourses Founded on the

Scripture (Lancaster 1778). Brackenridge was a chaplain with Washington's army at Valley Forge in the

winter of 1777-78. This book is what he called in the Preface, "Discourses of a nature chiefly political"

delivered to the soldiers at that encampment, on subjects including Tyranny, Toryism, The Cause of

Liberty, General Burgoyne. Its secular subject is emphasized by the author: "Let not the word Scripture,

in the title page, prevent that general attention to these discourses which they might otherwise receive. ... I

am careful to assure my countrymen, that these discourses are what they pretend to be, of a nature chiefly

political." Purchased from Gordon Hopkins with a grant from the Breslauer Foundation.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

Archive of American

Publishers’ Ephemera, 1840-

1900, 216 pieces.

The American Antiquarian

Society’s collection of American

ephemera includes much

material related to the book and

printing trades, including

bookplates, binders’ tickets, and

trade cards for printers and

publishers. A recent donation in

honor of long time ephemera

dealer and collector Joseph

Freedman (who passed away in

January of 2013), expanded the

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collection greatly. The new material includes over two hundred examples of printer’s bill heads, trade

cards, and advertising handbills from large urban centers like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as

well as smaller towns like New Bedford, Massachusetts, York, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

These receipts for orders, detailed bills for printing jobs, and lists of supplies all help to reconstruct the

vibrant printing history of the United States in the last half of the nineteenth century. Some highlights

include an 1841 letter from lithographer George Endicott complaining to his landlord about a leaky roof,

a bill from printer Augustus Kollner for book illustrations for a genealogy, an elegant engraved trade card

for printmaker J. B Longacre, and an invitation to a typographer’s ball in Philadelphia. Gift of an

Anonymous Donor in Honor of Joseph Freedman.

~Lauren Hewes

Aristotle’s Master-piece, Completed. In Two Parts. The

First Containing the Secrets of Generation… The

Second Part being a Private Looking-Glass for the

Female Sex. New-York: Printed for the Company of

Flying Stationers, 1812.

Aristotle’s Masterpiece is a fascinating hybrid text. It

used the veneer of a supposed classical author (Aristotle

really had about as much to do with this work as the Pope

did) in order to give legitimacy to its discussion of the

culturally sensitive subject of sex. Printed under various

titles for over a century in America (from the 1740s-

1840s), sections were added, dropped, and changed at

will, including a midwifery manual. Most notable in

almost all editions are the illustrations of monstrous

births, hairy women, conjoined twins, etc.

This 1812 edition is unrecorded, but about a dozen among

the more than fifty editions of Aristotle’s Masterpiece at

AAS bear the imprint “for the company of flying

stationers.” Flying stationers were book chapmen who,

alongside broadside and ballad pedlars, hawked their

wares on the street. Elsewhere in AAS’s collections, an

almanac for 1761 was described as “sold also by the country storekeepers, moving-merchants, flying

stationers and old ballad-women.” This early sex manual would have had a similar street-level

distribution system, although perhaps it was advertised more through tantalizing whispers than the usual

street cries? Purchased from Webb Dordick Rare Books. Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

Subsequently adopted anonymously as part of AAS’s Adopt-a-Book 2013 “in honor of Marcus Allen

McCorison, bibliographer of Risqué Literature Published in America Before 1877.”

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

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“Aunt Abbie.” The Fairy Grotto. [Green Bay, Wisconsin:

Advocate Press. Robinson Brothers & Clark,1877]

This charming volume is a true orphan, apparently the sole survivor

of its kind. Printed by the local newspaper in Green Bay, Wisconsin,

it presumably was meant to be decorated by the purchaser. The hand-

done illuminations in this copy are only partially completed, and it

contains the dedication: “This little story is affectionately dedicated

to all of my dear nieces and nephews, East and West, by their loving

Aunt Abbie.” Purchased from Willis Monie. Henry Bowen and Jane

Kenah Dewey Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

Beal, Thomas. Account Book, 1809-1810.

Thomas Prince Beal (1785-1852), son of David

Beal and Lydia Prince, was a lawyer in the coastal

town of Kingston, Massachusetts. He married

Betsy Sampson, and the couple had seven

children. His account book, although short,

reflects his professional life from 1809 through

1810. Arranged by customer and listing debts and

credits, the volume shows Beal’s activity with

insurance on ships. Entries include “To premium

for insuring 400 dollars on the Minerva” and

“Insured one thousand Dollars on the Sch.

Jefferson from Kingston…” Beal also collected

mortgages on homes and land. It wasn’t all business, however. Beal was also sure to make a note of

books he lent out to Dr. Bartlett – Johnson’s Lives of the Poets and Savage’s Poems. Purchased from

Cheryl Needle. Harriette M. Forbes Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

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Bible Characters, Instructive and Entertaining Compiled for the use of Young Children (3rd

ed) on a

sheet with History of Haman and Mordecai compiled by a Friend to Youth. New York: Mahlon Day,

1837.

This single sheet printing shows the way in which multiple-page books were laid out (or composed)

during the nineteenth century. Such sheets are rare survivors as they mostly were either made into

saleable books or pulped if unused. In this case, two titles were laid out together by the printer to make

the best use of the sheet. Both titles are illustrated with woodcuts of Bible figures including Adam and

Eve, and Esther. Curiously, the tail piece to Bible Characters, which is illustrated throughout with toga-

wearing figures in foreign climates, is a small cut of a very 1830's steamboat at a riverside dock.

AAS has an edition of Bible Characters originally issued by New York Quaker publisher Mahlon Day

and reissued with a new cover by New Bedford, Mass. publisher Charles and Augustus Taber. The

Tabers also reissued both Bible Characters and History of Haman and Mordecai under one cover, and

since this combined sheet was found in a New Bedford warehouse, it points to a definite connection

between Mahlon Day and the Taber firm, a business relationship perhaps undergirded by their shared

Quaker faith . Purchased from James Arsenault & Co. with Adopt-a-Book funds.

~Laura Wasowicz and Lauren Hewes

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Blossom and Fruit. A Choice Collection of Hebrew Texts for Jewish

Public and Private Instruction=Tsits u-Feri. Compiled and

published by Julius Katzenberg. New York: Industrial School,

Hebrew Orphan Asylum, 1882.

AAS certainly has Hebrew texts geared to Christian divinity students,

but this text is geared to the needs of Jewish children and youth. AAS

has just one other children’s book printed by the Hebrew Orphan

Asylum Industrial School, which was a gift book printed as a

fundraiser for Mount Sinai Hospital. Books like Blossom and Fruit

reflect the emergence of a vibrant middle class Jewish community in

nineteenth-century New York. Purchased from Dan Wyman. Linda F.

& Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Booth, T.D. after William T. Ranney.

Trapper’s Last Shot. Cincinnati, Ohio:

T. D. Booth, for the Western Art

Union, 1850.

Based on a painting by the American

artist William T. Ranney, who was well-

known for his images of Texas pioneers,

woodland trappers and rugged

landscapes, this engraving was

originally offered as a members’

premium by the Western Art Union in

Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1850. This

organization was founded in 1847 to

promote and cultivate the arts in the

Midwest. The engraving was the last to

be issued by the group, which published

a total of three large framing prints

between 1847 and 1850. It is also the last in the set to be acquired by the American Antiquarian Society.

Discussions with AAS member James N. Heald last year resulted in a generous contribution from the

Richard A. Heald Foundation to assist the Society in acquiring impressions of all known prints published

by the various American art unions, with acquisitions to be made in honor of Georgia B. Barnhill. We

already hold a complete set of prints issued by the American Art Union (New York), the Cosmopolitan

Art Union (New York) and now, the Western Art Union (Cincinnati). Ranney’s image proved to be very

popular with the American market. It was reissued as a lithograph by Currier & Ives in the 1850s, and as

a wood engraving in Harper’s Weekly in 1867. Purchased from the Old Print Shop with funds from the

Richard A. Heald Foundation in honor of Georgia B. Barnhill.

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~Lauren Hewes

Brown, Frances. Sketches from Nature, for My Juvenile

Friends. Cleveland: Mrs. H.F.M. Brown; Cincinnati:

Longley Brothers; Boston: Bela Marsh, 1858.

This is a remarkable collection of short stories that were

clearly the product of the reformist press that flourished in

Boston, Cincinnati, and Cleveland shortly before the Civil

War. Although the wood-engraved illustrations look quite

conventional--here is a picture of a May Queen being

“crowned”--the text is anything but conventional. In the short

essay on “Girls’ rights,” Mrs. Brown exhorts her young

readers, “You have rights, and it is time you were looking

them up. … You have a right to learn, to cook, to wash, to

make shirts, to skate, to swim, to roll the hoop, to fly the kite,

to laugh till your soul is brimful of mirth, and your lungs full

of air.” Purchased from the Old Bookstore via Ebay. Linda F.

& Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Buell, Jonathan S. The Cider Makers’ Manual: a Practical

Hand-Book, Which Embodies Treatises on the Apple;

Construction of Cider Mills, Cider-Presses, Seed-Washers, and

Cider Mill Machinery in General; Cider Making; Fermentation;

Improved Processes in Refining Cider, and its Conversion into

Wine & Champagne. Revised edition with additions. Buffalo:

Published by Haas, Nauert & Co., 1874.

Perhaps the best of 19th-century American cider manuals, Buell’s is

an important reference for all interested in reviving this most

American of thirst quenchers. Coming home dragging at the end of

a hard workday? Buell has the solution: “Cider is exactly the food

suited to a tired condition” as “it satisfies the more interior parts of

the system.” But beware misnomers: Buell very carefully

distinguishes between the various liquid products that can be

derived from apples, including cider, cider vinegar, apple wine,

apple Champaign, and apple juice. Makes you thirsty, doesn’t it?

Fortunately, Buell includes practical discussion and diagrams for

“The Grater Mill,” “Portable Mill,” “Buell’s Improved Screw-

press” and finally “The Model Cider Mill, and how it should be

constructed.” Purchased from Rabelais Inc. Isaac Davis Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

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Bullard, Asa. Children’s Book for Sabbath Hours. Springfield,

Mass. & Chicago: W.J. Holland & Co., 1873.

With the secularization of American society after the Civil War, this

book by minister Asa Bullard answered a need to give children

something wholesome yet entertaining to read while keeping the

Sabbath free from raucous play. This is a selection of short stories

and poems, issued with luxurious full page photo-engravings, like this

one of children playing with their large (but gentle) dog. Purchased

from Michael Burstein. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Chandler, John Greene. American National Circus.

Boston: Brown, Taggard & Chase, ca. 1858.

John Greene Chandler was a Boston engraver,

lithographer, and designer of picture books and paper

toys. He is best known as the author and illustrator of

The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little, which has

become a classic of American children’s literature.

This copy of American National Circus is an

incredibly pristine example of a printed paper toy for

children and will join the other paper dolls, card

games, puzzles and board games in the Society’s

printed toy and game collection. The pieces are luxuriously colored using the emerging process of color

lithography. Not only are the circus figures exotic, they are definitely American; note the flag in the stunt

rider’s hand, and the American shield worn by the elephant. This copy comes with instructions to

children on how to play with the pieces, using wooden or metal pins to attach the human figures to the

animals. Advertised as a “New divertissement for Children” by the publisher in the Boston Courier for

December 13, 1858, the set originally sold for 38 cents and was intended for the Christmas and New

Year’s market.

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Printed paper toys are rare survivors of the

printing trade, and were issued mainly by

publishers who were also selling children’s

books. Although hundreds were

advertised, few survived their owners’

enthusiastic play. This copy was kept

carefully in the Chandler family until the

late twentieth century. The last Chandler

family owner was famed children’s book

collector and puppeteer Herbert H.

Hosmer (1913-1995), who in 1978 gave

the Society an important collection of over

1,000 books, watercolors and designs

associated with McLoughlin Bros. publishing house. Purchased from Sheryl Jaeger. Breslauer

Foundation.

~Laura Wasowicz

Fitch's Geography for Beginners, [1850-1858].

This handwritten textbook of geography is

something of a mystery. Heavily illustrated with

original drawings and images clipped from

publications, the text is divided into lessons with

topics such as “About Travelling,” “About the

Surface of the Earth,” “About Animals,” and

“About Trees and Plants.” The title, Fitch’s

Geography… suggests that the text may have been

written by George W. Fitch, author of several

geography texts in the 1840s and 1850s. Is this a

mockup made by Fitch? Or a work created by a

teacher or student? It can be roughly dated by a

map showing California (admitted 1850) as a state

but Minnesota (admitted 1858) as a territory.

Purchased on eBay. John T. Lee Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

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Gardner Monumental Works. J.C. Sargent, Proprietor. Photographer unknown, c. 1875 and Design

for the Jaffery N.H. Civil War Monument, watercolor on paper, c. 1870.

These two items relating to the masonry business of J.C. Sargent Co. in Gardner, Massachusetts, were

included in a purchase made by the AAS of a portion of the firm’s archives. The acquisition included

account books and letters but also numerous photographs of the work completed by the firm, including

cemetery monuments and statuary, as well as prints and watercolors from the archive. The company

specialized in cemetery monuments but also did pedestals and curb work. An advertisement confidently

stated: “Every piece of work warranted, and disappointment will not be possible.” Looking at the

determined faces and capable hands of the carvers and cutters holding their tools in the photographic

portrait, the claim is quite believable. The Jaffrey, N.H., marble and granite base holding aloft the town’s

Civil War soldier monument still stands today. Purchased from Harold Gordon with funds from the

Ahmanson Foundation Fund.

~Lauren Hewes

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Gill, Augustus. Penmanship Book [1830s].

A new addition to our ever growing Penmanship Book Collection

is a volume kept by a student named Augustus Gill, who was

probably born in Canton, Massachusetts around 1820. What is

most striking about this particular item is its cover, which features

an African leopard and the phrase “Be just and fear not.” The

blank book was printed by “Condon & Marden,” printers, and sold

by “John Marsh, at the Stationary Warehouse” in Boston,

probably in the 1830s. Within the covers are the typical

penmanship practice pages, with the author practicing words such

as commandment, murmur, inconveniences, and termination. But

what makes this volume even more special are the additional

pages in the back where Augustus practiced letter writing

(addressing multiple letters to “Dear Uncle Asa”), and tried his

hand at poetry and mathematical word problems. His poems

include versus on Death, Fidelity, Roses and Spring. And

Augustus must have been a good math student, as his arithmetic

all adds up! Purchased from Aiglatson. Gladys Brook Foundation Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

Howell & Rogers, Ledger [Leicester, Mass.?], 1848-1850.

This ledger records the monthly “invoice of goods taken” from a

general store over the course of two years, 1848-1850. The

entries are occasionally divided into dry goods and hardware,

and show a variety of items being sold, including textiles (silk,

cashmere, flannel), shoes, boots, candy, coffee, wallets, combs,

knives, and even books (“Webster Dictionary,” “Smiths

Grammar,” “Emersons Arithmetic”). Not much is known about

the business, however the name of Howell and Rogers is

inscribed on the front cover. Multiple pages of doodles and

penmanship practice make up the end of the volume, with the

town of Leicester being practiced frequently, so the business

may have been located there. Purchased from R. & A. Petrilla.

Nancy and Randall Burkett Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

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Kilner, Dorothy. The History of a Great Many Little Boys and

Girls. Keene, N.H.: John Prentiss, 1807.

English author Dorothy Kilner (1755-1836) targeted these stories

specifically to young readers between the ages of four and five.

Although her audience is young, Kilner’s subjects are very serious:

one young boy who refuses to wear clothes is beaten by a neighbor

until he consents to getting dressed; in another story, a mother calmly

explains to her daughter the choice between eating inexpensive milk

porridge and wearing a sturdy stuff gown, and drinking costly tea

every day and wearing rags. This edition is not recorded in the

Checklist of American Imprints or d’Alte Welch’s Bibliography of

American Children’s Books Printed Prior to 1821, and we are

delighted to have it. Purchased from Rob Rulon Miller. Ruth

Adomeit Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Kimball, Moses. Journal, 1850-1851.

Moses Kimball (1809-1895) was an active citizen of

Boston throughout the 19th century. After failed

attempts at the newspaper and printing business,

Kimball succeeded in the museum business,

purchasing and expanding the New England Museum

(which had been established by Ethan Allen

Greenwood) in 1838, and opening the Boston

Museum in 1841. He was a close associate of P.T.

Barnum, and was the founder and owner of the “Fejee

Mermaid”, made famous and widely exhibited by

Barnum. Kimball’s political life included three terms

in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as

well as three unsuccessful runs for Mayor of Boston.

This account book chronicles another side still to

Kimball, his family life. Labeled “Family Expenses”,

the book includes monthly lists of the various

purchases Kimball made for his family (wife Frances Lavinia Hathaway and daughter Margaret Kimball).

Pages show the purchase of items such as linen and other fabrics, meat and sundries, wine and coffee, and

the occasional travel expenses. The front of the volume contains a pocket with receipts, including one for

bleeding with leeches. Purchased from Cheryl Needle. Nancy and Randall Burkett Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

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Mann, Mary Peabody. The Flower People. Boston: James

R. Osgood & Co., 1875.

First published in the early 1840’s, Mary Peabody Mann’s The

Flower People introduced the study of botany to children

under the guise of conversations between a girl named Mary

and various plants. In this case, Mary is speaking to a leaf that

she picked on a fall day. The leaf patiently explains the life

cycle of a tree, and its place in the ecosystem—a very early

work of its kind written for children. This exquisite photo-

mechanically printed plate was designed for this edition by the

elusive woman artist Mrs. G.P. Lathrop. Purchased from

Michael Burstein. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

Marshall, Emma. Consideration or How Can We Help One

Another? New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1870.

This is a collection of moral stories about how people can traverse the

boundaries of social class and help each other. The hero of this picture

is actually the coachman, who braves the cold and rain to take a young

woman to hear a minister lecture on the physical and spiritual needs of

the poor. Although the coachman gets seriously ill, his son is hired by

the young woman to be her errand boy, a charitable act that is within

her power. Purchased from Michael Burstein. Linda F. & Julian L.

Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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New-York Clipper (New York, NY). Apr. 13, 1863 –

Apr. 8, 1865.

At a recent book fair, AAS was offered two bound volumes

of this extremely rare sporting and entertainment

periodical. It began in 1853 as a periodical covering

sporting events. By the time of the Civil War the New-

York Clipper included coverage of the theatrical scene.

Some issues contained literary pieces and short stories.

While the circulation was fairly high, few files survive

today due to its low-brow content. Some of the

advertisements are for risqué books and photographs

though they were not explicit (e.g. one ad for photographs

described them as “Le petite figurante!”). Each issue also

contains a woodcut on the front page, usually the portrait to

accompany a biographical article. Purchased from

Periodyssey. Harry G. Stoddard Memorial Fund.

~Vincent Golden

Peabody, Selim Hobart. Cecil’s Book of Birds. Philadelphia:

Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1871.

Natural histories for children, particularly those about birds, were

extremely popular in nineteenth-century America. They ranged

from humble pocket-sized chapbooks of 8 pages to this cloth-bound

edition of 234 pages. It features wood-engraved plates depicting

various species, as in this depiction of hummingbirds hovering

together. The description emphasizes that hummingbirds are native

to America, giving its young readers that these exotic little creatures

await observation just outside one’s window. Purchased from Willis

Monie. Linda F. & Julian L. Lapides Fund.

~Laura Wasowicz

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Sartain, Samuel after Christian Schussele. Clear the

Track! Philadelphia: Samuel Sartain, for the Art Union

of Philadelphia, 1854.

Founded in 1844, the Art Union of Philadelphia issued six

engravings to its subscribing members between 1847 and

1854 in an attempt to promote and disseminate American

art in the region. With generous support from the Richard

A. Heald Foundation, the Society is attempting to build a

complete set of all of the prints issued by art unions from

across the country before 1876. This print of rambunctious

children sledding down a snowy hill was based on a

painting by Christian Schussele, who emigrated to the U.S.

from Alsace in 1848 and worked in Philadelphia as a

successful lithographer and artist. Samuel Sartain was paid

$900 to engrave Clear the Track for the Art Union of

Philadelphia and his work on the print won him a medal

when the engraving was exhibited at the Franklin Institute.

Reviews in the local press called the print “beautiful” and

stated: “It is really a gem of art.” It was also the last print issued by the Art Union of Philadelphia, which

was disbanded in 1855. Purchased from the Washington Print Gallery, with funds from the Richard A.

Heald Foundation, in honor of Georgia B. Barnhill.

~Lauren Hewes

Schultz, Christian,

after Richard Canton

Woodville. Cornered!

[Waiting for a Stage].

Lemercier

lithographer. New

York & Paris: Goupil

& Co., 1851.

With the exhibition and

publication of With a

French Accent:

American Lithography

to 1860, (Davis Art

Center, Wellesley

College 2012 and

Musée Goupil,

Bordeaux, France 2013)

the American

Antiquarian Society has

become a resource for

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the study of international production and distribution of lithographs in the pre-Civil War era. This

beautiful print, which was published, produced and colored in France for the European and American

consumer, completes the Society’s holdings of Goupil lithographs produced after works by the American

painter Richard Canton Woodville. The Society already holds Woodville’s The Civil Marriage and

Politics in an Oyster House. This image of three men waiting for a stage was originally sold via the

Goupil catalog as a part of a trio of images by Americans -- grouped together with a print after William

Sydney Mount and one after George Caleb Bingham. Goupil was well known for extremely fine

lithographic impressions and for the skills of their colorists. The print was sold at Goupil’s New York

show room, as well as in London, Paris and Berlin. This impression came from the Goupil archive and

has contemporary marginal notations regarding the inventory status of the print. Purchased from the Old

Print Shop. Breslauer Foudation.

~Lauren Hewes

Travelling Comedians and

Stealing is a Sin. Two progressive

lithographic proof books. Boston:

Louis Prang & Co., 1870 and

1873.

The firm Louis Prang & Co. in

Boston was well known for its

exceptional chromolithographs,

mostly produced after the Civil

War. They published portrait

prints, genre scenes, floral

compositions, and ephemera such

as holiday cards using multiple

stones and layers of ink to create a

rich finish and elaborate coloration.

In order to keep track of the order

in which the stones and inks were

printed, the firm often produced

“progressive proof books” which

served as a way to reconstruct the

printing should the image need to be reprinted. The proof books laid out the order in which the stones

were printed and the colors of the ink on each stone. The printing process required a large investment of

time, skill, and staff and so the books were held by the firm in a library/archive where they could easily be

consulted and the print could be reconstructed with minimal effort. In 1924, AAS acquired six Prang

proof books from member and lithograph collector Charles Henry Taylor. These included a proof book

for a chromolithograph of Henry Ward Beecher, a pattern for a Christmas card, a floral image by Martin

Johnson Heade, and landscapes and images of children. Recently, two more Prang proof books turned up

on the market, both depicting humorous animal subjects. Two prints of monkeys dressed as jockeys riding

large dogs were issued in 1870 and were based on paintings by the European animal painter Joos Vincent

de Vos. The nursery print of an angry farmyard duck defending its dinner from a flock of sparrows was

published in 1873. The existence of these proof books indicates that the firm valued its comedic subjects

just as much as its portraits of clergymen and works after American painters, since they retained the proof

17

book for possible future printing. Both volumes purchased from James Arsenault & Co. with funds from

Anonymous #1 Fund.

~Lauren Hewes

Van Etten Bros., Manufacturers, Importers and Jobbers

of Novelties, Notions, Books, Photographs, Chromos,

Stereoscopic Views, and a Full Line of Goods Adapted

Especially to the Wants of Canvassing Agents. Chicago:

Birnery Hand & Co’s Steam Printing House, 1876.

The Van Etten Bros. catalog is like a nineteenth-century

SkyMall catalog, only instead of reading it while on an

airplane, items would be sold by canvassers, or door-to-

door salesmen (or women, apparently, for Van Etten Bros.

declare: “We want one live, energetic lady or gentleman

agent to canvass and sell our goods in every town in the United States”). Items for sale include not only

“Dogs Playing Poker”-type popular images like the one here, but also all those strange inventions that you

never knew you needed. The Defiance Lock Protector “renders it simply impossible to turn any key while

it is in the lock,” and is apparently especially useful to secure hotel rooms. Hartshorn’s Improved Patent

Folding Lamp Shade had “more than 100,000 sold in sixty days,” although the necessity for folding one’s

lamp shade is less clear. The importance of the Patent Duplex Ventilated Garter is more immediately

clear, since “the garter should measure about three inches less than the circumference of the limb” it

seems especially important that this one is unique in “insuring free circulation of the blood.” Purchased

from James Arsenault. Edwin Wolf 2nd

Fund.

~Elizabeth Watts Pope

18

Ward, Eliza Wetmore. Poetry Album, 1850-1867.

271988

Eliza Wetmore Ward was born in Salem, Massachusetts

in 1808. Although not much is known about Ward’s life,

much can be revealed about her through her book of

poetry. Ward filled her volume – which she purchased

in Montreal in 1850 – with her own poetry and

reflections, as well as others’ poems. Many of the verses

she recorded are attributed to others, some of them well-

known (she copied the entirety of Longfellow’s “Paul

Revere’s Ride” in 1867), others not. Still others have no

attribution, and these may very well be her own original

poems. In a somber verse, “Words over a grave,” one of

her unattributed poems, Ward writes “Did she sorrow to

live? – When her husband was near / There lay ‘neath

her eyelids an unshed tear; / But it trickled not til her boy

drew nigh, / And asked his pale Mother never to die!

Never to die -.” Purchased at Elizabeth’s Auctions.

Harriette M. Forbes Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry

Young Woman's Expenses, 1832. 442326

This short but intriguing account book, covered in attractive,

cascading leaf covered wallpaper wrappers contains records for the

year 1832. The owner, apparently a woman, seems to travel

frequently between Ipswich, Boston, Providence and New York,

recording travel expenses, lodging and dinners. She was a well-

educated woman, listing numerous book purchases such as

Geography of Massachusetts, Lincoln’s Botany, The Girl’s Own

Book, and Parley’s Tales of Europe. She also paid for the use of

books, as well as for tuition for one quarter. She even enjoyed a few

simple luxuries, such as fancy handkerchiefs, silk, and a quart of

cherries on July 4th. Several pages in the same hand at the rear of the

volume tell a different story, however. There are handwritten

promissory notes and receipts for a variety of people in a variety of

places, all with the same date—suggesting this volume was actually an exercise book for someone

learning how to keep personal accounts. Purchased from Cheryl Needle. Nancy and Randall Burkett

Fund.

~Thomas Knoles and Tracey Kry